After the fun of Christmas and New Year, the January blues can easily set in. But did you know there’s another party occasion to look forward to at the end of the month?
Chinese New Year kicks off on January 22 – another great excuse to celebrate and enjoy delicious food!
Forget expensive Chinese takeaways – you can make a tasty, healthy stir fry for the whole family for very little cost.
Stir fries are an energy-efficient way to cook as they’re ready in a flash. Plus, you can use up any meat and vegetables lurking in the fridge, including leftovers, and bulk them out with rice or noodles.
One ingredient that isn’t worth scrimping on is the all-important soy sauce.
Not all soy sauces are the same – top quality Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce is slowly matured for several months, resulting in high levels of flavour-boosting umami, meaning a little goes a long way.
It’s additive-free too. Other types of soy sauce (often labelled “light” and “dark”) are chemically or only part-brewed so have no real depth of flavour, just saltiness. It’s the difference between a great dish and a lacklustre dish.
Try this super stir fry and “let’s hear it for the soy” this Chinese New Year.
Easy beef stir fry with noodles
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
- 250g egg noodles
- 200g lean beef rump steak, cut into thin strips
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 225g can sliced water chestnuts, drained
- 1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 1 small yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
- 4 spring onions, sliced
- Sesame seeds, to garnish (optional)
For the sauce:
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- ¼ tsp ginger paste
- 100ml water
- 4 tbsp Kikkoman Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
Method
- Cook the egg noodles according to the pack instructions, then drain.
- Toss the strips of beef in the cornflour and set aside.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Put the vegetable oil in a small saucepan set over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, lightly fry the garlic for 1 minute, then add the ginger paste and cook for 30 seconds. Add the water, Kikkoman Soy Sauce and brown sugar to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Keep warm while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- For the stir fry, put the vegetable oil in a wok or large non-stick frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, quickly stir fry the beef in two or three batches. You want the meat to be crisp on the outside, but not cooked throughout. Transfer the seared beef to a plate.
- If the wok has a lot of oil in it, remove all of it except one tbsp. Add the water chestnuts, peppers, broccoli and most of the spring onions and stir fry for a couple of minutes before returning the beef to the wok.
- Add the sauce, stir, and allow everything to cook for an additional two minutes before removing from the heat.
- Toss through the noodles and serve garnished with the remaining spring onions and sesame seeds, if liked.
